The present invention relates to a projectile provided with an infrared target seeking system at its bow and means for correcting the flight of the projectile, with the target seeking system having a deflection device for scanning the target area.
Successful combat against tactical and ballistic missiles with guns requires the use of sensor supported ammunition having a comparatively high target detection range and hit accuracy. The target detection sensor systems may here be active or passive systems. Active systems offer an opportunity for the autonomous determination of the target distance and thus permit modified proportional navigation with the result of improved hit accuracy. The various guided missile systems realized in the past require gyro stabilized systems of great mechanical complexity. These systems are often unable to withstand the stresses occurring upon launching.
For example, Federal Republic of Germany DE-AS 2,923,547, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,579, issued May 11th, 1982, discloses a target seeking device for missiles where the device includes a passive sensor. This device is essentially based on a gyro rotor mounted in a housing, with a detector being fixed to the housing at the central pivot arm. An optical system is disposed on the gyro rotor in order to image the field of view of the target seeking device which lies at infinity as a field of view image in the plane of the detector. The means for producing relative movement between the field of view image and the detector is a torque generator which acts on the gyro rotor and receives the appropriate scanning signals from a scanning signal generator. With suitable selection of the scanning signals, it is possible to produce a rosette-shaped scanning pattern of the target area. This has the particular advantage that a target detected in the vicinity of the center is covered more or less by every loop of the rosette. Thus the deviation of the target with reference to the center point can be determined at relatively little cost and the target seeking device can be adjusted correspondingly.
The above-described passive target seeking device with a rosette-like scanning pattern is further improved in Federal Republic of Germany Patent No. 3,623,343. In this case as well, a gyro stabilized system of great mechanical complexity is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,818 discloses a missile which is equipped with an optical target seeking device as well as with an optical proximity fuze. The receiver of the passive target seeking device simultaneously serves as the receiver for the active proximity fuze. This reference does not disclose an active target seeking method.